If you are taking about PedroPero in Madrid, despite my screen name, I haven’t been back to Spain, very unfortunately, since I left in 1984.
I did have several really excellent pizzas in Spain 40 years ago. They included queso cabrales, my most favorite blue cheese ever, and a nice, crisp crust.
I was in Philly 2 days before 9/11 for a weekend and my best memories are of the Reading Terminal Market and this place. So quaint and picturesque! I loved Philly and want to go back someday!
I’ve been to RTM many, many times, but usually just visiting for a few days with often no fridge in the hotel room or means to cook up some off the wonderful available there. There’s also some nice food stands, but TBH we are so inundated with good food shopping much closer to our digs: the Italian market, the ginormous Viet market, that Dominican place I recently stumbled into with incredible looking pollo asado and chicharrones oh, my…
But we’ll get back there while in town. Haven’t gotten to Chinatown yet, either.
I guess this is what happens when a place starts resting on their laurels a bit too much. Our lunch at Casa Mexico, which is affiliated with South Philly Barbacoa, was a massive letdown.
We’d been here a couple of times before, but clearly I’d forgotten just how mediocre our latest experience a couple of years ago was. As had been the case on our previous visits, they were out of their ”famous” carnitas. Again 
. Strike #1
The lunch deal of 3 tacos for $13 sounded like a great option for us to sample (almost) Everything But The Carnitas, and we each were going to get a variety — chorizo, bistec & camarones para mí, pibil, pollo & fish for para el. No es posible. Gotta order 3 of the same 
Strike #2
Left with only 2 choices out of about 10, my pic chose the pibil, I got the camarones — naively envisioning something akin to the amazing Cajun shrimp tacos from my favorite taco slinger in >cough, cough< Central PA.
That vision was shattered by the appearance of my plate. Each taco held 2 tiny, heavily battered shrimp, plain shredded red cabbage, and a few random pomegranate arils.
The shrimp had no flavor whatsoever, and no amount of hot sauce (a red & green salsa with a small plate of corn chips is served as a free snack) could save them. No detectable seasoning, not even salt. 
Strike #3
While the pibil tacos were far more generous with the amount of pork, they were unfortunately almost as bland as the shrimp & needed salt as well — tho at least they weren’t as dry.
The house-made corn tortillas might be the first I ever had anywhere that didn’t fall apart almost immediately. Both plates had near desiccated radish and cuke slices on them.
Finally, when I went to wash my hands after our meal, one of the stalls / toilets was in such a condition I was glad I didn’t need to use them. 
Strike #4
The total with tip came to almost $45, which is more than any of this was worth, and I was genuinely pissed for spending that kind of money on such an absolute disappointment 
Our server was incredibly friendly, but even a saint couldn’t save this experience. I will absolutely never return & cannot in good faith recommend anyone else does, either. Shoulda split a banh mi from Ba Le instead 
Hopefully, our celebratory dinner tonight will be better. Low bar at least 
Such a disappointment for your lunch(es). Pretty sure ANYTHING would be better! Live it up tonight for your celebration!
Sadz 
Mucho sad-o, my man.
We scored a rez for two at the highly touted, super-hip, super-popular (thx, NYT Best of Philly list 
), TINY Filipino resto Tabachoy last night. We’d hoped to go with two more peeps including @Bigley9, but reservations at a reasonable dining hour, i.e. NOT 5pm were hard to come by for the days we had in mind 
Despite having a rez for counter seating,
we were sat at a 2-top right next to the door — something that would’ve bothered me if the tiny room hadn’t been on the warmer side, so the occasional draft from the ins & outs was actually quite pleasant.
We shared the starter sampler (loempia, Tabachoy Caesar & Chance’s fried wings),
followed by a small order of the pork adobo and garlic rice.
The last time I had loempia was in my teens, and I always thought those were the best I’d ever had (save for my ex’s Thai mom’s, which were also spectacular).
Theirs were amazing, and the Caesar was fantastic as well. The wings were just ok for us.
The adobo was tender & flavorful, and the garlic rice may turn me into a rice convert after all. We are really hoping to return with a bigger crew, and try some of the other things on the menu — although both the loempia and the Caesar will make an encore appearance, for sure 
The place is BYOB, which makes it very affordable, and it’s in the top 3 meals we’ve had in Philly so far. I somehow couldn’t stop myself from taking a pic of the restaurant’s ‘mascot’ reflection in the window, which was perfect from where I was sitting 
Pigs being pigs n 'at.
Pigs in zen!! 
We were happy as pigs in shit, which is pretty, prettty, pretttttty happy 
I’ve never seen red/purple cabbage used on tacos.
That’s weird, at least in my experience.
It added absolutely nothing.
Good to know. That’s what I figured.
Is this on your radar?
I am a life long Philadelphian and I have never heard of this place🤷♀️
It is not bc I don’t care for cheesesteaks.
Isgro is an amazing and highly popular pastry shop near the Italian market. I’ve never seen the place empty & can only imagine how packed the tiny bakery is on the weekends!
I could buy up their entire display case,
but we just stuck to the usual — pasticcini & butter walnut cookies (my faves), ricotta chocolate cookies, macaroons, Italian chocolate cookies.
@Bigley9 did you hear they added a delivery kitchen???
I saw that - wondering if the quality will be the same! 
I guess someone’s gonna hafta TOFTT
Happy to volunteer, altho it’s pretty easy for us to get there.
